UMA Weekend International May 23/24th May- quick report

UMA International 2 Day Groundfighting and Grappling Championships, 23rd and 24th May 2009

The UMA staged a weekend of grappling at the Wallace Sports Centre in Stoke on Trent and attracted grapplers from all over the UK and even saw one entrant fly in from Russia to compete over the weekend!

The first day’s competition was held under no gi groundfighting rules and with two mats running, all brackets were running like clockwork; Leicester Shoot came down in force, ready for action and dominated throughout the day, taking the lion’s share of the medals with twelve in total. Teams from Lagarto Gracie Barra were also out in numbers and mixed it up with competitors representing Ray Diego, Cobra MMA, KMA and Stockport Fighters among others.

The Masters division saw MMA legend Lee Hasdell in action and showed he still has got what it takes to win the bracket, taking on the highly experienced grappler Ian Bromley to collect gold, leaving Ian with silver and Sean Smith the bronze.

The second day of action was all gi based, with fighters starting from standing position and fought under the ‘With Gi’ grappling rules; all points scored were similar to BJJ points scoring which made it an easy transition for all BJJ players and the day was swamped by BJJ clubs, with a number of Gracie Barra clubs practically dominating every weight bracket.

Refereeing throughout the weekend meant I was unable to see all the action and take as many photos as I would have liked but what did strike me on both days were the attitudes of all the competitors; win or lose every fighter took the decisions in their strides and the level of sportsmanship on both days were a credit to each competitor and their respective clubs. As stated earlier both days ran like clockwork with both events finishing way before three pm giving everybody easy time to get back home and have a celebratory pint or two.

The UMA will be staging the remainder of their events at the same venue and from everyone at the UMA on behalf of myself as Chief Officer, we look forward to seeing you all again in September for the next event, the ‘with gi’ groundfighting championships. Special thanks to Pavel Federov who flew in from Russia to compete and left with a silver medal in the gi event and to Marty Young and friend who made the long trip down from Aberdeen and competed in both events.